I am looking at buying a used s vert. Is there anything I should be looking out for on the earlier ones? Is one year better than the next?

 

I'm not aware of the differences between the two, but make sure you find out when whichever car your considering was originally purchased. The 06 could have as much as a year more warranty than the 05.

 

Yeah, certainly odometer mileage and condition of the car should be the biggest discriminators, with build month (remaining service and warranty) worth noting.

Maybe it's just a perception, but I don't seem to see the '06 folks complaining as much about the passenger side motor mount. Did MINI sneak an improved design in there somewhere?

Either way, hard to go wrong with an '05 or '06.

 

Thanks,
I am weighing between two 05's right now first one,hyper blue has 21,000k (13,000 miles) was purchased Feb 06 , the other 34,000k (21,000 miles) was purchased Aug 05 and is pure silver. Both fully loaded and great shape. Asking price is 2000 more for the hyper blue and the pure silver has new tires and brakes. Tough decision. Reality check, I guess I could have worse things to worry about.

 

Well, the 05 was the first year of the Cabrio. Not sure if there were any issues to iron out. By 05 most of the issues with the R53 (Cooper S Hardtop) were ironed out. I'd probably go for the 2006 just because of the year .

 

Mine blew. I "Replaced" it with the VIP Custom Parts mount, and left the blown mount in place. With all the Poly bushings and solid mounts on my car the engine isn't going anywhere.

 

Search other threads for more details, but wasn't the issue with wear marks on the roof a much bigger problem with the earlier '05 builds? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

 

I've had the roof replaced on my 06 (sept 06 build) already, and will probably need another new roof soon (white marks).

 

Roof problems do not appear to be related to year ('05s may seem to have more issues . . . 'cause those roofs are already a year older than '06s . . . but I don't think it's due to a difference in the cars).
In fact, many have already had the replacement roofs replaced. ^

 

For what it's worth, I recently purchased an 06 convertible and I had been trying to decide between this one an an 05 with significantly lower mileage.

One of the big players in my opting for the 06 was the Consumers Reports review of the 05s. They list enough black circles (worst possible) to make the overall rating a black circle for the 05s.

I don't necessarily put a lot of stock into CS, but all else being equal (well, the 06 has a year more warranty left, too) - the 06 gives me a little more peace of mind as far as maintenance.

 

I thought 05 was the first year CS recommended it.

Either way, I would put more stock on that CS rating if you could point to specific changes that were made between 05 and 06.